Tag: Vintage Inspired Design

A Beautiful Heirloom Bride

Like a beautiful breath of fresh air, Peyton came to my studio via word of mouth and brightened up my life! She is a lovely, fun & fresh young lady with long dark hair and a beautiful warm smile.

She had with her two dresses: one from her grandmother’s wedding from the 1940’s, and one that belonged to her great-grandmother for her wedding dating back to the 1920’s! There also were a couple of bridal accessories in the garment bag including sheer gloves and a detachable collar with lace edging and covered buttons. She wanted to use the dresses in some way to create a dress for her own wedding. She had been given permission from her family to use the dresses in any way that she wanted, but with the condition that she incorporate parts of the dresses into her own wedding dress.

She sent me some ideas of what she wanted for her dress: Something simple for the top, not fussy, and a tea-length skirt. Just pretty, romantic and comfortable.

The lace from the bodice of her grandmother’s dress was unusable as it was discolored and sadly disintegrating from age. The skirt, however, was in good condition and made of a nice quality silk chiffon and lined in a lightweight silk material.

She trusted me with her heirloom dresses and I got to work deconstructing her grandmother’s dress. We decided that great-grandmother’s dress was far too discolored and not a good shade of white to use, so we left that one in-tact.

I ever so carefully removed the vintage stitches, many of them hand-sewn, separating the bodice from the skirt. Once the skirt was off, I overlocked the very top edge of the skirt to give it stability and keep it together for what was coming next for it. A bath!

I gently laundered the detached skirt in my clean bathtub in warm water with Woolite and a sprinkle of Oxyclean, gently swishing it in the suds and rinsing it out with warm water. The bath water was pretty dingy after all of these decades! After pressing out the dampness in a clean white towel, I then laid out the skirt to air dry on my drying rack.

Once the skirt was completely dry, I hung it on a skirt hanger and carefully steamed it out with my handy dandy steamer machine. I love that thing! The skirt came out like a dream! It was soft, flowy, fresh and pretty. Best of all, the wrinkles, dingy hue and “old lady” smell magically disappeared! Horray!

Meanwhile, Peyton had homework to do involving purchasing a new lace material that she wanted for her custom-made bodice to be attached to grandma’s skirt. She found a lovely floral lace fabric and some lining that she delivered to me to be sewn up into a fitted bodice that I had already made a muslin mock up to her liking.

Fitting time! This is always an exciting, and totally nerve-wracking, stage in the dressmaking process. The bodice is mocked up in muslin and pinned to the skirt. So far so good!

After the fitting and approval of the work so far, I got straight into cutting out the bodice in lace and began to construct it.

An attempt at making a hidden seam in the lace.

Bra cups sewn into the interior of the bodice

Fast forward to the dress being close to finished, I added the final touches with a new zipper, buttons from grandma’s gloves and a new little ribbon belt. I the share photos with the bride and schedule the last fittings and deadline.

The interior of the dress including a ribbon stay, hanging loops and an old version of my Love, Stephanie label.

I love to present my custom-made garments to clients in a garment bag embroidered with a monogrammed initial.

I was just so touched and honored that Peyton came to me to create this special and sentimental wedding dress for her. I loved working with her, her family and loved ones. She is a delightful and beautiful person and I am touched to have been a part of her wedding!

September 12, 2023
Draped in a Dream Dress

This journey began with a bright eyed beauty, curious to know more about what I might be able to create for her and what the process of creating a custom dress looked like. Laura contacted me, looking for a custom dress to wear to her sister’s wedding event. She wanted a dress with a 1930’s feel, one that had fabric interest with unique design details.

She had seen a dress in a movie that she loved and wanted to get a similar look. She sent me photos of screen shots from the movie, plus some inspiration shared on Pinterest

She loved the rich tones of the fabric combination, and the soft ruffled neckline of this dress

She also loves the straps of this dress

I got to work and found a pattern that was designed in the 1930’s and had the basic shape of the dress style she liked including the sweetheart neckline, the low back and the long, softly shaped skirt

I found this pattern and ordered it from Etsy

We hit the fabric store shortly after I received the pattern, and I also made a mock up of the dress for her to try on

It was my first time making a ruffle like this at the neckline of a dress. Although we like it, we decided it was a bit too much for her.

The fit of the dress was great, but here we are playing with different strap placement and neckline shape

Back to the drawing board!

As the construction of the dress progressed, I kept Laura posted with details of what I was doing and got her input on any options she had.

She loves the combination of the drapey lavender chiffon with the deep plus satin. I also thought the colors were beautiful together, just the placement was not as compelling as it could be.

I brought up an idea of draping over the entire top of the dress, allowing both fabrics to have their moment. I presented her with this idea of draping and criss crossing the chiffon over the bodice.

She really like that idea, approved it, so I got going on making it happen!

I finished constructing the dress underneath by adding boning and bra cups to the lining of the dress.

The lining turned out beautifully and was a pleasure to look at as she slipped into the dress. That kind of detail makes me happy, and hopefully also the case for the wearer!

The bodice and skirt lining ready to be installed into the dress!

Plenty of pining and hand sewing happening on my trusty dressform

The bodice front, sides, and eventual side drape piece, all pleated and basted, ready to be sewn together, then sewn over the main dress bodice.

So after quite a bit of trial and error, as this was my first time creating such a dress with the draping detail, I finally finished the gown!

Here are some photos of the versions I sent over to her before finishing up on her final version:

She looks so pretty and elegant, even unfinished!

The drape happening in the back would also look so gorgeous! I might need to make this dress again just for fun!

And the finale!

The final gown!

Meanwhile, Portland was hit with a big snowstorm that essentially shut down the city and trapped many people at home. Well, that didn’t stop me! My sweet husband offered to drive me and the finished gown over to Laura’s house and deliver it in person in his SUV that is great in the snow. What a nice guy!

Laura was radiant in her dress as she tried it on in her bedroom! I brought along a small sewing kit and supplies to do any last minute fixes as needed.

Well, it turned out that the dress needed a little more than just a few stitches to make it perfect. So, unfortunately I had to take the dress back home and make some fitting changes to the bodice and straps to make it just right. No problem! OK, one major problem: the dress was meant for her to take along to wear at her sister’s wedding event in California the next day and it wasn’t ready. UGH!!! I was hoping to be able to make the changes that same day and drive the dress back over so she could pack it for her trip. I ran out of time and wasn’t able to make it happen. You have no idea how SO disappointing this was for me, not to mention for her as well. So she left early the next morning for California, all without the dress we worked so hard to make in time for the event. GRR, I was SO upset with myself!

Well, now the dress is complete and altered and ready to go for the next occasion she may have to wear it. All in all, Laura was such a wonderful client to work with and I hope that she’s willing to work with me again on another gorgeous creation, and possibly even teach her some sewing lessons so that she can learn to make her own beautiful and unique clothes!

Lesson learned: time management is KEY to making deadlines and leaving room for error.

The gown turned out so elegant and eye catching!

Every angle of the dress has interest

We love the low back!

And the drape! So pretty and elegant!

Thank you so much Laura for choosing me to create such a beautiful gown for you! I enjoyed every moment of the process, mishaps and all. Enjoy wearing your dress and may you glow and shine in it as you do so naturally! Love, Stephanie

March 1, 2023
A Twinkle in His Eye 1955

My silk gown and reversible overskirt

This lovely creation all stemmed from a challenge. I belong to a professional sewing association, ASDP, that hosts an annual sewing challenge in conjunction with Threads Magazine.

For the 2022 Threads Challenge, we were to use a vintage pattern from the pattern archive at the University of Rhode Island as an inspiration.

I thought that this was quite fitting as both my father and I graduated from URI! My father graduated in 1954 and I was in the class of 1992. My parents met while my mother was in college at the University of Connecticut which was also in the 1950’s, so I thought I would choose a design that was popular during that era

Evening Ball Gown 1955

Dress with Overskirt

I also had this sewing pattern, the recently released version from McCalls, as well as the original pattern released in in 1955 from McCalls which I bought on eBay.

I could imagine that my mother would have worn a gown like this in her day as she was quite the stylish and elegant lady, so I kept her in mind and close to my heart as I planned out and sewed up this dress.

The original 1955 pattern release. I love the fashion illustration!

McCalls re-release of the style from their Archive Collection

I ordered 9 yards of the silk dupioni from Mood.com to ensure I had enough for the sheath dress and the overskirt. Once the gorgeous material arrived, I went to my local favorite fabric store and purchased enough material to line the dress in silk habotai, and also line the overskirt, which is not part of the patter, but something I wanted to add to catch the eye when wearing this already eye-catching dress.

The materials and patterns

I got to work making a mock-up in muslin of the dress and asked for help with the fitting from my go-to expert Marla Kazell.

Once I was confident with the fit of the dress, I got to work cutting out the fabrics and the new version of the pattern, McCalls 7897

Ready to cut into this spendy silk!

I sewed the dress up without much issue, using the pattern instructions to follow, and making it fully lined. The pattern has you create a facing for the inside edges which I thought wasn’t good enough, and fully lining the dress would make for a nicer finish in my opinion.

The work in progress

For the overskirt, I just made the printed silk organza lining out of the same pattern pieces and hemmed it to meet the outer red material before attaching it to the waistband strip.

The pattern also has a cummerbund as part of the look, but I left that off as I wanted to have the overskirt easily removable for the showcase of the garment. I have enough leftover silk to make the cummerbund, so perhaps one day I will make that as well.

I submitted my garment into the challenge, along with photos of the finished garment, a description of the dress, and the story behind why I chose this style and pattern, to the ASDP Challenge committee. Here are some photos that I submitted to the committee:

Front of dress wit overskirt

Back of dress with overskirt, and the lining peeping out

The dress and overskirt from the side-I love the volume!

Front of the dress, with the overskirt reversed, showing off the lovely floral print!

The sheath dress on it’s own, so sleek and elegant!

After several weeks, I got a notice that my submission had been chosen as a finalist in the challenge, and I was to send in or bring the dress along with me to the ASDP conference where all of the challenge finalists would be in the fashion show and the judges and audience would choose the winner. I was overjoyed to hear this news, and excited to share my make with fellow sewing enthusiasts that would be attending the conference in Baltimore, MD in October.

I packed the dress and overskirt in my suitcase, along with hand sewing needles, thread and a little sewing kit, and made it to the conference almost ready to submit my dress. I knew that I had to make some final sewing touches to the dress, and of course, left these to the very last minute! I still had to sew the lining down to the inside edges, at the shoulder and to the zipper, and hem the skirt lining. I did this all by hand, rushing through it in my hotel room at the very last minute, just in time to submit it to the contest committee for the final review. That, I believe, really hurt my chances of winning the challenge, as the judges of the challenge are expert seamstresses and would surely be examining my rushed and messy sewing up close.

The time came for the fashion show at the conference where dresses from past challenge winners, students and finalists from the 2022 challenge showcased their work to the audience of other conference attendees as well as anyone who wanted to attend the show. I modeled my dress, as I made it to fit myself, and got many ooh’s and ahhh’s on my completed look! I was next to last in the runway line up, standing proudly amongst some other amazing creations and works of art. I felt so honored to have been a finalist in the challenge, yet a little disappointed I didn’t win any of the challenge prizes for the work that I did.

I love my dress and am OK with not being the winner. I just wish I had snapped a photo of me wearing it or asked for a photo from the fashion show! There was a photographer there throughout the show, so I am sure I’ll get some photos of me in it eventually.

I put time and effort into my creation, and know that it wasn’t perfect, certainly not up to the standards of expert seamstresses or for the editors of a nationally published magazine such as Threads. Am I disappointed in myself? Yes, certainly, as I had the time to do a much better job with the finishings of the garment. However, I am very proud that I was chosen as a finalist, and have learned a great deal about the level of workmanship that needs to go into a project that would be chosen by a contest judge.

After the Threads challenge winner was chosen for her wonderful workmanship and design, they announced the theme of the 2023 Threads challenge for next year. This time, the challenge consists of designing a piece of outerwear that is inspired by a 2-dimensional piece of art. What an amazing challenge! Since I didn’t win this year’s challenge, I am eligible to enter the next one, so with that, I think I’ll go for it! Now, to find some inspiration and start planning what I can make…and DO IT! That’s the new challenge!

Modeling my creation!

October 25, 2022
Romance In Color

Ahh, sweet, sweet love!

I was SO honored and excited to have been asked by a friendly acquaintance of mine to custom make his fiance’s wedding gown. We are friends on Facebook and had seen and admired some of the garments that I sew and post on my Love, Stephanie page.

I gleefully met up with the bride-to-be Terri and we started to plan the project right away as we only had three months until the wedding.

She wanted a vintage style look, and had an original idea of 1935’s-era inspired separates of a gown, an over-blouse and a long-line jacket all in silk. It was a beautiful and wonderful look that she showed me, an actual Vogue Pattern that I happened to also have in my pattern library-how about that!

After mulling over this idea for a few days, we decided that this pattern would be a lot of pieces for me to make, take up quite a lot of fabric, and that we really didn’t have enough time to make it all work.

Idea # 2 was the perfect vision! It combined a vintage look, simplicity, and I knew it was absolutely do-able in the time that we had. I just love this look!

Plus, when she said she wanted a solid color, I rejoiced because those chevron stripes meeting perfectly down the center front of this dress in insanely slippery silk charmeuse-yikes!!!

I got started researching a decent sewing pattern to base her dress off of in order to make the whole process a little easier and not have to make a pattern from scratch. I found this Simplicity pattern which is a vintage one, but from 1972:

The dress had the V-Neckline with the center front seam and angled seams under the bust and a floor length semi-flared skirt. I would lower the neckline, turn the bust darts into gathers, and make a new sleeve to resemble design lines of the inspiration gown as closely as I could.

She wanted the dress to be in a beautiful color, one that was vibrant, memorable and looked great on her warm brown skin tone. She ordered this gorgeous and lustrous silk charmeuse in a color called Citronelle from NY Designer Fabrics:

Of course, I took a few minutes to sketch out the vision of the dress, adding to it over the time and finishing it off with the look that she executed for her wedding day:

Meanwhile, I got started modifying the pattern and creating a muslin. I chose to make the first muslin out if an inexpensive polyester satin to mimic the silk, but I really should have made the first mock-up out of actual muslin and saved the satin for mockup # 2, but oh well, they both served their purposes:

Fitting #1: we worked out a good deal of fitting and design adjustments to the gown.

I added to the sides where she need more room, lowered the neckline, and checked to see if she liked the sleeve.

Then back to flat pattern adjustments and cutting muslin #2:

She was actively loosing weight, so now the dress was TOO big! But, that’s just fine, better to have more to work with than a too-tight fit. We wanted drop the under-bust seam a little more and obviously take in more fabric in the back. Overall, the 2nd fitting went really well, I knew what I needed to do next and it was looking good and she was starting to really get excited about her gown!

We had two more fittings before the final delivery. The next was in the dress sewn up most of the way in the actual silk fabric with the changes from the last fitting, but before the zipper was put in, before the hem was cut and sewn, and with generous seam allowances on the sides and back just in case we needed more room. The last fitting, the dress was done, but she wanted to take in the sides a tad more, and there were a few seam tweakings to perfect the dress.

I added finishing touches to the dress using a beige silk lining for the bodice and sleeves:

As an added little luxe touch, I sewed in satin ribbon hanging loops at the top of the sleeves so that the dress did not just slip off the hanger when stored:

A little satin ribbon sewn into the seam makes a great hanging loop that just falls into the dress invisibly when worn.

I made a tiny narrow hem to finish off the dress:

Making the narrow hem, almost done!

Here is the dress, all complete, steamed and ready to roll, hanging in my sewing room (not the best hanger-appeal on this dress: it really needs a body and boobs to fill it out to perfection in my opinion):

The wedding day was upon us! I was nervous about the dress and hoped and prayed that she was happy and loved her gown. It turned out to be really lovely and it looked so beautiful on her! The silk was just SO lustrous and flowed beautifully as she walked and danced with her new husband.

Success!!

I had the idea to make him a little matching pocket square out of scraps of her dress fabric which she was delighted to give to him during the ceremony. So cute!

I am so in love with their love and simply honored to have such a big part of their wedding ceremony. Thank you Terri and David! Congratulations!!!!

Kiss your beautiful bride!

April 10, 2018